U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer on Tuesday said that an Environmental Protection Agency “cow tax” proposal could cost New York state farmers $120 million and put family farms at risk.

Schumer said in a news release that this little-known “cow tax” could be imposed on New York state farmers if the EPA goes ahead with a new regulation discussed in its Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking under the 1990 Clean Air Act amendments.

The advance proposal to regulate greenhouse gas could include a potential tax of an estimated $175 per dairy cow or $87.50 per beef cow for farm animals' emissions, Schumer said and he's asked EPA Administrator Steve Johnson to abandon this idea as an option for controlling greenhouse-gas emissions.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture said that if the EPA moves forward, farms with more than 25 dairy cows or 50 beef cattle would need permits for each ton of methane emitted.

At $45 per ton, the American Farm Bureau Federation figured a cost of $175 per dairy cow or $87.50 per beef cow, with a medium sized dairy farm (75 to 125 cows) paying $13,000 to $22,000 a year.

It would cost a medium sized cattle farm (200 to 300 cows) between $17,000 and $27,000.

New York, the nation's third leading milk producer, has 6,400 dairy farms producing 12 billion pounds of milk yearly. Milk sales are one-third of New York's total agricultural receipts.

Sales of cattle by New York's 14,200 livestock producers bring more than $150 million in cash receipts yearly.

Central New York's 77,200 dairy cows and 8,300 beef cattle would generate $14,236,250 in fees for its farmers.

Rochester-Finger Lakes' 99,500 dairy cows and 16,000 beef cattle would create $18,891,250 in fees, according to numbers supplied by Schumer's office.